MILWAUKEE – Baseball fans are conditioned to worry when they see “forearm tightness” – or an injury designation like that – because they know it could be a precursor to a much more serious injury. And given the poor luck surrounding the Braves this season, fans perhaps expected the worst with starting pitcher Reynaldo López.
Instead, they received positive news.
The Braves and their fans can breathe a sigh of relief for now.
The MRI on López’s right forearm came back clean, manager Brian Snitker said. Unless his forearm keeps bothering him, the Braves don’t appear poised to shut down López for any period of time, based on what Snitker said before Monday’s series opener against the Brewers at American Family Field.
“He’s kind of on that day-to-day train,” Snitker said. “We’ll just see how he is with treatment. But there wasn’t anything big, so that’s always a good thing.”
While his teammates finished Sunday’s win in New York, López flew back to Atlanta for his MRI. On Monday, he received treatment and told the Braves he feels better than he did on Sunday, which is encouraging. The Braves will monitor how he feels on Tuesday and beyond.
The Braves haven’t yet put López on the injured list. They might not even do so.
“We’ll know more later as how he progresses over the first part of the week and then we’ll see when he starts tossing again, but I don’t think there’s any plans – unless it keeps bothering him or whatever – to shut him down for an extended period,” Snitker said.
López’s clean MRI result likely has ramifications for Braves president of baseball operations and general manager Alex Anthopoulos and his strategy for Tuesday’s trade deadline. If the Braves knew they’d be without López for a large chunk of the second half, Anthopoulos probably would have to push a bit harder to find a starting pitcher – though the Braves have in-house options in AJ Smith-Shawver, Ian Anderson and Bryce Elder. (Speaking of which: Elder seems likely to start Tuesday’s game in Milwaukee. He’s with the team here, and the Braves haven’t listed a Tuesday starter.)
If López will return soon, then Anthopoulos can focus on acquiring an outfield bat. This doesn’t mean he won’t trade for a starter – it just means rival clubs won’t have the leverage of knowing he’s going to be without a key starter for a good portion of the rest of the regular season.
The Braves will continue crossing their fingers, but López seems to have avoided the worst-case scenario. Snitker couldn’t say whether López could go through his in-between-starts routine right now, or whether he might start next weekend, but the manager didn’t talk like he was preparing for life without another starter.
The Braves have lost Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuña Jr. for the season. They’re without Michael Harris II, Max Fried and Ozzie Albies. They’ve dealt with other injuries.
And on Sunday, it appeared as if they might lose López for an extended period of time.
“You always worry when it’s something like a guy’s got a forearm (ailment) and all that, whatever,” Snitker said. “It’s good to get the pictures, and it was just good to (have them) come back with nothing out of the ordinary. We’ll just take him day to day.”
López has thrown 104 2/3 innings this season – a large increase from the 66 he logged last season. He hadn’t surpassed 100 innings since 2019, when he threw 184 as a full-time starter. The Braves have given López ample rest this season – he’s only started on regular rest twice – but his workload has still increased in his return to starting.
Snitker was relieved to hear the news on López.
“The doctors check them out and all that sounds really good, but until you actually get the pictures, you just don’t know what they might find,” he said. “So that was good. Very encouraging.”
On Sunday, López left his start after three scoreless innings because of right forearm tightness. People in baseball know that ominous phrase, and what it can mean.
Thus, the update – that the MRI came back clean – was a nice surprise.
“No, it is,” Snitker said. “That tightness can be a little bit of anything, really. So that was good that he got that.”
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